
Glass E_f 

Book__ JL 



L*7 



iT// 
THE PRESENT CRISIS. 



♦ ■ ♦ ■ ♦ 



A. SPEECH 



DELIVERED BY 



DR. GEO. B. LORING, 



-"- i 



LYCEUM HALL, SALEM, 

WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 26, 1865, 



ON THE ASSASSINATION OF 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



DR. LORING'S LETTER TO THE SALEM GAZETTE, ON 

RECONSTRUCTION. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST, 



SOUTH DANVERS: 

PRINTED AT THE WIZARD OFFICE, BY CHARLES D. HOWARD. 

1865. 



THE PRESENT CRISIS. 



[reported by j. w. perkins.] 

My Eriends and Eellow - Citizens : 

I accepted the invitation to respond to the resolutions which have just 
been offered to the meeting, not supposing that I should be the first one called 
upon to make remarks in concurrence with their tone and tenor. I imagined 
that I should first hear from some of those whose views are a little more 
familiar to you than mine are in the discussions of the questions of this hour. 
I find myself laboring under difficulties, having my thoughts somewhat de- 
ranged, and my mind somewhat appalled by the magnitude of the great 
crisis which rests upon our land. Why, my friends, when I consider the 
wickedness which prompted this rebellion, the sophistries and arguments 
by which its authors sought to defend it, the extraordinary doctrines which 
they charged upon the Revolutionary fathers, I am shocked beyond expres- 
sion, at this last great tragedy, the fruit of our past history, and my mind 
is broken down by the magnitude of our national woe. 

Let us look back for a moment. Do you suppose that when Washington 
and Jefferson, and Madison and Hamilton, and Jay and Adams, and their 
great compeers secured our freedom by the sword and wrought out our 
constitution by their great intellects, do you suppose they imagined that the 
great rights and privileges, which they conferred upon us to be perpetuated 
by all peaceful endeavor, would demand of us such a fearful sacrifice of blood, 
in order that their desire for freedom might be accomplished ? Do you im- 
agine that when the Declaraction of Independence laid down the great truth 
that " all men are born free and equal," its authors and defenders reserved 
to themselves the right to prove that this profoundly humane doctrine is 
false ? Do you suppose that it ever occurred to them, when they gave to 
the states and to individual powers liberty under the constitution, that such 
liberty would be used for the purpose of tearing down that constitution and 
deluging the land with blood ? Do you conceive for a moment, that that 
great system of government devised by them, was not a government before 
which you and I as individuals, and all these clustering states, must bow 
in humble submission to the law? Never for a moment. On the contrary 
their dream was of a perpetual government, confirmed and strengthened 
as time went on, the work of a long era of peace. They supposed that be- 
fore a half century should have passed away, this whole land would be 



the abode of freedom, and constitutional rights from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, from the lakes to the Gulf. It was written in all letters and docu- 
ments that emanated from their hands, and in all their debates. That new- 
born doctrine that " slavery is the corner-stone of the republic," — do you 
find it acknowledged anywhere, by the fathers ? Has it been written down 
by them ? Can you find it in any letter of "Washington or Jefferson or 
Franklin or Adams, in any debate, or in any message to Congress ? Did 
they ever entertain the thought of engrafting slavery upon this land, so 
firmly that it should be a lasting institution ? Had they done this in the 
beginning, where would have been our Republic ? Stricken down by the 
hand of men before it had passed its pupilage, crushed by the hand of God 
before it had been born ! 

And now, my friends, here we are. After having been born and educated 
for the purposes of peace and freedom, and equality, we find ourselves with a 
great record of blood written upon our history, such a record of blood as the 
world has never seen, and such as for atrocity on one side, the civilized 
ages have never known. We have been compelled to wade through seas 
of blood for the cause of humanity and good government ; and when the 
great object of the war was on the verge of being accomplished, the best and 
dearest blood in the whole land is shed to seal the future of the American 
people. Before the great national barbarism and wrong we as a people 
have bowed in agony, and our President has laid down his life, the last as 
he is the greatest martyr in the cause of the American Independence. (Ap- 
lause.) 

My friends, your resolutions refer tenderly and affectionately to him, whose 
enviable lot it was, to be elected of all men upon the earth, by the American 
people to lead them through this great struggle, this great contest, and then 
to be elected of God to rise into heaven, to immortalize his work and take 
his seat by the side of the Father of his Country. It is no idle word to say, 
that when the name of Washington may be forgotten, perhaps unknown in 
many an humble heart, when the victories of the battle-field shall have 
passed from the memory of men, it will be recorded and remembered forever 
of Abraham Lincoln, that he laid down his life for universal freedom. 
(Applause.) This did not Washington. Alone of all men, did our late 
President, as a leader of the people, lay down his life for the freedom of the 
down trodden and lowly. His lot is indeed enviable, destined as he was by 
God to go on step by step, until this great chapter in our history shall be 
recorded as his. 

He seemed to be guided by instinct, and yet he had great wisdom. We all 
know he had a kind and generous heart, and his enemies came to know it too. 
He was not a great statesman, for he had not been educated as such ; he was 
not a great lawyer, for his professional career was spent in the inferior courts 
of Illinois ; he was not a great scholar, for books had been but a small part 
of his early possessions ; he was not a great warrior, for he had no experi- 
ence on the battle-field, no culture in military schools, but he was a great 
man — a great man — able to grapple with any subject that rose before him 
and to deal with it according to the exigencies of the times. Mark how he 



went through all those troubles. He began no wiser than you or I. He 
declared to congress that this war was not for the extinction of slavery, and 
he never conceived in the outset that this was a war for emancipation. "Was 
it not a great deed, therefore, when the conservative forces of the country 
stood trembling, when we were told that bankruptcy would fall upon us, that 
anarchy and ruin would overspread the land, and servile insurrection would 
lay waste one half of the republic, was it not a great deed for him to obey 
the largest impulses of his nature, and in an hour to change his convictions 
and come boldly and uncompromisingly up to the principle, that this land 
should be free so far as his proclamation could make it free ? Yes, my 
friends, it was a great deed — greater than lawyers do, — your Websters and 
your Choates, great as they are — a greater deed than is done in your 
courts — a greater deed than Generals do — a greater deed than politicians 
generally do. (Applause.) And it was because, while all the responsibility 
and the consequences rested upon him, he rose above the surrounding level, 
and made that declaration of freedom, that he made himself truly great. 

I said he was kind-hearted ; and you know there are many men abroad in 
this land, pursuing their peaceful avocations, through the forbearance of 
Abraham Lincoln, who by their own showing are entitled to a life-punish- 
ment in the penitentiary. And you know 7 , and I know, that when those 
men who had undertaken to destroy the government, and had deluged this 
land in blood, came forward but half-penitant, half-clothed in sackcloth and 
ashes for their sins, his arms were ever open to receive them, and no bosom 
was broader than his. My friends, his clemency was his danger. And 
now that he has laid down his life, let us remember that danger and be 
warned by it. (Great applause.) I insist upon it that the great end for 
which this war has been fought, the great business of his life, will never be 
accomplished by what is usually called clemency — mercy not directed by 
justice. (Applause.) If, after having clone his duty so faithfully in this 
life, he has, by his blood, cemented the hearts of the American people and 
enlightened their minds in the work of elevating and purifying the land, this 
last act is his greatest. He dreaded assassination, he was aware that plots 
were laid for his life, yet he went steadily and truly on with his work even to 
the laying down of his life in the cause, until by his death he has taught us 
a lesson greater and nobler than any President living could give. 

I know I used a strong expression when I said we must beware of clem- 
ency. I do not desire vengeance. I would not have the North imitate the 
example of those who dishonored our noble dead, and starved our impris- 
oned soldiers to decimate our armies. I would not have a free and gallant 
people vengeful and blood-thirsty — but I would have them just, prudent 
and wise. Can not we add wisdom to prudence, and accord strict justice 
to those who have taken up arms against our government ? Shall Ave restore 
them to the fullness of their former rights ? Never. They have taken their 
chances, and now let them abide by the result. (Great applause.) They 
have declared that they were independent, now let them remain independent. 
(Applause.) The world is wide, and all lands, and all oceans, and the islands 
of the sea are open to receive them. (Applause — amen.) Some of them have 



taken care to provide the necessary comforts for their journey. (Laughter.) 
And what a contrast we have before us — your eulogized and sainted Presi- 
dent, known through all the world as the friend of freedom and a free 
government, who has written his name among the stars — and his opponent 
flying in the darkness before an indignant people, branded and despised, 
bearing his ill-gotten treasure if possible to that safety which a foreign land 
alone can give him, an outlaw and fugitive. "What a contrast — the one a 
martyr in heaven — the other a felon sunk into the lowest pit of infamy on 
earth. (Applause.) This, my friends, impersonates the contest which has 
been going on between slavery and freedom. In the histor)' of Abraham Lin- 
coln I read the refulgence of American freedom — in the history of the great 
leader of the rebellion, I read the fate of American slavery — sunk to that 
lower deep which the imagination of man alone has reached. 

I now desire to say a word upon the matter of reconstruction, but I fear I 
may weary you. (Go on, go on.) In all this question of reconstruction 
there is but one star that should guide us — and that star is the largest 
and broadest truth laid down and defended by Abraham Lincoln — the star 
he has set in the firmament of our heavens. We must not be led away from 
the issue, either by the blandishments of our foes or by our desire for peace. 
The American people must have the great principle of human freedom 
established, and they will never be satisfied until this is done, war or no 
war. (Great applause.) Starting from this point, from this great prin- 
ciple, I insist upon it that it is impossible to treat with traitors tcho have 
taken up ar?ns against this government, for the express purpose of blasting it 
and all hopes of freedom with it. We cannot restore our government in this 
way. I feel it to be impossible, and would never, so long as I had the 
power of an American citizen, I would never agree to the restoration of 
the old state organizations among the revolted states, or to any state govern- 
ments manufactured for the occasion. I would as soon invite Jefferson Davis 
to come to Washington and take his seat by the side of President Johnson, 
as I would allow Extra Billy Smith to reorganize the state government of 
Virginia. So I say of all the states which have destroyed their "practical 
relations " to the general government by rebellion. When all the citizens of 
a state reach that point at which they are ready to return, upon the basis 
of government which the war has made for us all, let them return. But 
not until this is accomplished — not until free suffrage is established — not until 
the institutions of these states conform to the highest civilization of the land — 
would I place them on an equality with the loyal states. No twelve nor 
twelve thousand men in any state can do this — but a free people regenerated 
by the efforts of the general government. Until this is done how can mem- 
bers of Congress be returned, whose principles shall render them fit to sit 
by the side of men from Massachusetts ? (Great applause. Hurrah.) 

I asked a distinguished Republican leader not long ago — what benefit 
could be derived from the admission of such men as Brown of Mississippi v 
and Cobb of Georgia, and Clay of Alabama once more on the floor of Con- 
gress, or others just like them — a result very likely to follow the sudden 
reorganization of these states, on the plan proposed in Louisiana. How 



could these men deal justly -with the great questions growing out of the 
war ? How could they aid in adjusting the great troubles which they have 
created? "They would come but once," was his reply. That once is too 
much. The work of freedom must be accomplished without and in spite 
of them. No oath of allegiance can purify them. Our country — the civilized / 
world, does not want their counsels. Their return would be an eternal 
disgrace to us. It would humiliate us in the eyes of all foreign powers. 
It would bring back all our controversy, paralyze all our efforts, overthrow 
all that we have accomplished, dishonor the white man, and enslave the 
black man. The freemen of the North and the bondmen of the South 
protest against it. May we forever avoid this snare. (Applause.) 

Now, what is there on the other side ? It is simply this. I would hold 
the revolted states by the power of the Federal authority, — that power 
which we have strengthened and confirmed by this war. The first gun 
fired at Sumter knocked down the institution of slavery, and dispelled for- 
ever all the fallacies and sophistries accumulated for years under the names 
of State Rights and State Sovereignty. I do not mean any invasion of the 
legitimate rights of a state, — but of that superlative folly which has been 
represented by the flag of South Carolina and the sacred soil of Virginia. 
The Federal authority has now become powerful, and is the supreme power 
in the land. When the revolted states are ready to recognize that au- 
thority, when they are ready to bear their proportion of the national 
debt, when they are ready to make common cause with the loyal North in 
their systems of education and laws and religion, when their citizens are 
ready to sacrifice their lives in support of the Union as the North has 
done for the last four years, then and not till then would I allow them 
to return. (Applause.) It has been said that the great contest has been be- 
tween Massachusetts and South Carolina. Be it so. And as Massachu- 
setts has carried the day, I would have South Carolina submit wisely and 
gracefully to the consequences of the defeat. (Applause and hurrahs.) 

Let us see then, if we cannot adopt some system by which our schools, 
and all our institutions can be planted and nurtured upon their soil. I 
think we can. I think the American people are equal to this issue, and 
that they will never be satisfied until the Federal arm is stretched over the 
revolted states, holding them firmly in obedience, in its powerful grasp, un- 
til they shall have learned the lesson of freedom, which the North has 
furnished them. This would give us a government and a country worth hav- 
ving, worth living for and worth dying for. Accomplish this, and we can 
say that we have carried our country safely through this field of blood, 
and firmly established the great principles for which this war has been 
fought ; and that we have proved ourselves not only brave in battle, but in 
peace and in war a Christian, and high-toned and moral people. For the 
accomplishment of this, there must be a period of pupilage, in which the 
social transformation may go on in safety to those who have been hitherto 
oppressed — in which the down-trodden there may work up to the standard 
of freedom — and in which they will acquire ability to defend themselves* 
when their freedom and social position shall be perfected. And during this 



8 

period of pupilage let us exercise such military sway as will secure the 
great objects of the war. 

My friends, I have often said, in view of the distressing events of these 
times, that I was bom either too early or too late ; but.if in my day the 
regeneration of this people and nation shall be perfected, and they shall prove 
themselves to be valiant in the field, and wise, religious, Christian in council 
and aims, I shall feel that I was born in a blessed hour. It is indeed amazing 
to see how the people have been elevated by the contest, it is marvellous 
how self-sacrificing and courageous and lofty they have become under its 
trials and responsibilities. They have been equal to the occasion. "When, 
therefore, I am warned that a free exercise of their powers is dangerous 
and subversive ; — that no safety can exist in a community where the ballot 
is free, I can turn with pride and satisfaction to this chapter inthe history 
of popular government. I have entire faith in the people, in the free ballot 
as an instrument of power which the people shall use, and use well in de- 
ciding all the great questions of the day. I know that these questions will 
be judged and settled in our homes and schoolhouses and pulpits — the very 
places of all others where they should be brought to judgment. And I have 
yet to see or read of the event in which the ruling and inevitable question 
of the day, the issue of the time, the controlling thought of the hour has 
not met with a response in the popular heart. There is a great, almost un- 
known, inestimable power, that sends truth into the hearts of the people ; and 
the grander the truth the more quickly will their instincts run to it. The 
history of the war teaches us this lesson also. It is on this estimate of popu- 
lar intelligence and right, that Ave of the North have established the exercise 
of free ballot — of universal suffrage. There is no distinction here among 
citizens ; no one is deprived of the right to cast his ballot, if he pays his 
taxes and can read the law. "Why should there be any other condition of 
affairs at the South ? And above all things, should there be no discrimina- 
tion against those who have toiled so faithfully for us and our cause. Shall 
not they at least exercise the right which they have defended — without 
distinction of race or complexion ? I have yet to learn what living, mortal, 
conceivable attribute there is wrapt up in a man's skin, that shall prevent 
him from voting, if he shall pay his taxes and read his spelling book. — 
(Great applause.) I do not believe there is any danger in it. But I do be- 
lieve that by the extension of the free ballot, and by that alone the perma- 
nency and security of our free institutions, will be secured. (Applause.) 
It is not written that this great war shall close with a great injustice unre- 
dressed. It is not written in the heavens that the American people shall 
now, at the end of this strife, commit another great wrong. And the strife 
will never cease until it shall be established that the principles of the Declara- 
tion are, and shall ever be, the law of the land. Those men who have 
fought side by side with us in this war, who have perished on our hard-fought 
fields, and in our trenches, and who have guided our captured soldiers through 
the intricate paths of the enemy's country into the open air of freedom, 
always faithful, never flinching, must and shall now enjoy the privileges of 
free men. When you have established your government on this basis, then 



•will the desire of your fathers be fulfilled and realized. Then -will you 
have the Constitution which Washington and Jefferson proposed. Then will 
you stand before all nations of the earth, free indeed. Then will your 
power extend with benignant influence over this whole land. Then will 
the American people stand in the front rank of the nations, leading them 
on with the principles of free popular education and law, which they 
have laid down and fixed by this strife. 

My friends, I hardly know how or when or by whom, the history of this 
great struggle shall be written. No man living to-day can write it as it 
should be. The events of the times have swept us on, and have carried our 
rulers along, until the mind of man becomes almost powerless in its efforts to 
estimate the consequences. When however in the future some wise and 
profound historian shall look back and record this chapter on his pages, he 
will at least be compelled to acknowledge that never before has a people 
risen in its might and stricken down all political heresy, all social wrong, 
and moral iniquity, and obtained by an overpowering impulse that lofty 
eminence which an enlightened and faithful, and intelligent people ought to 
possess. Let us then thank God that we have lived to see this day, and do 
not let us flinch now that the power is in our hands. Let us do our duty 
here. This is not a large assembly ; and yet you can have but small idea of 
the power of such an assembly of earnest men, gathered together for the 
purpose of ascertaining the truth and pressing it home to the minds of their 
rulers. Our country is in confusion. The ideas of those who are to guide 
us through this crisis are yet to be moulded by the presentation from every 
quarter, of the great all-pervading truths which have grown out of the 
occasion. They do not, they cannot tell you how the mass is to crystal- 
lize — this turbid liquor is yet to be thrown into that condition from which 
forms and shapes may be taken. From such assemblies as these may go forth 
courage and wisdom, to teach our rulers and guide their councils. In the 
views expresed here you are not alone. When I tell you that the Chief Jus- 
tice of the United States will sanction no law that is not based on the eternal 
principles of freedom and justice, and the mind of Salmon P. Chase is devoted 
to the solution of the problem upon which a lasting and honorable peace can 
be obtained, in which no man shall be deprived of his God-given prerogatives, 
you will know that the Supreme Court is at last a pillar upon which every 
man who would be free can lean for succor and support. (Prolonged ap- 
plause.) I say this because I know it; and when I tell you that the Attorney 
General of the United States stands upon the same platform, that the Union 
men of the middle states cry out for the aid of the Federal Government in 
opening the revolted districts to free labor and free ballot, that your own 
Sumner has taken this ground and will not surrender, and that the best in- 
telligence of the land is assuming this attitude, you will then feel how cordial 
should be our labor in strengthening the hands of those to whom this great 
work has been entrusted. My friends, I have barely referred to the great 
question of the times. But I must yield to others who are to address you, and 
to whom I shall be happy to render the same patient hearing which they 
have accorded me. 



10 



LETTER TO THE SALEM GAZETTE. 



Salem, May 15, 1865. 

Messrs. Editors : — In an interesting article in the Gazette of the 12th inst., 
upon the rights of the States in the Union, you object somewhat to the ter- 
ritorial doctrine advanced by Senator Sumner early in the war, — a doctrine 
■which, as you say, I endeavored to defend at the meeting of the 4th, in Me- 
chanic Hall. The importance of this doctrine, at this time, seems to me to 
be so great that I beg leave to occupy your columns with a few more sugges- 
tions in its favor. 

I think it will hardly be denied that the revolted States not only destroyed 
their "practical relations" to the general government, but that in all their 
civil organization, they placed themselves outside of all exercise of the powers 
of the constitution. They organized their courts of law, they exercised their 
legislative functions, they elected their State and National officers, all with 
reference to some other power than the old government. Their post-ofnees 
and post-roads, their militia, their revenue laws, and their national taxation, 
were all controlled by authority unrecognized by the United States. Whether 
this was done by an unconstitutional act of secession, or by simply taking up 
arms against the Federal government, matters not. In either case the result 
must be the same. And Georgia, while in rebellion, and unoccupied by Fed- 
eral troops, is no more an integral part of the Union, than Texas was before 
her annexation. Not that I recognize the right of a State to secede by an 
act of her legislature, or by a vote of her people. But having risen in rev- 
olution, in revolt against the Federal authority, the status which she assumed, 
when admitted into the Union, or when she adopted the constitution, is so 
broken up, that her reorganization becomes as much a duty of the Federal 
government, in the event of her conquest, as her organization was while she 
was in a territorial condition, or at the moment of her becoming a part of the 
Union. 

A territory can only become a State by an act of Congress. A revolted 
State can only be restored to its place in the Union, by an act of Congress. — 
Congress has exercised this power in various ways, in the revolted States, — 



11 

in the division of Virginia, in the rejection of senators and representatives 
from Louisiana, in recognizing the military governors of States where the fed- 
eral government had gained a foothold during the rebellion. The course 
pursued towards Gov. Vance of Georgia, and Gov. Smith of Virginia, the de- 
termination not to recognize the State authorities, which have been clothed 
with power by a rebellious people in civil war, are significant of the necessity 
which now rests upon the general government, and very probably, in the 
minds of those dignitaries, bring them about as near the condition of territo- 
ries, as will be of practical service to the government, and utter overthrow to 

themselves. 

If, on the breaking out of the war, the people and the government of the 
United States could have foreseen the majestic power with which they were to 
march on to victory complete and overwhelming, would they have hesitated a 
moment in declaring that the revolted States should be resolved into their 
original elements, and should be reconstructed by the power which should 
subdue them ? Has not every departure from this great principle grown out 
of a fear of failure ? It was hard, in the beginning, for even the most faithful 
and sanguine to predict the grandeur of our success— the astonishing triumphs 
of our armies— the gallant protection of our flag on the high seas— the master- 
ly management of our finances— that dignified attitude by which we have 
kept foreign powers in check. Nor could the most enthusiastic and devoted 
lover of his race have foretold, that a government which commenced a war 
with the avowed determination of preserving intact all the institutions of 
this country, good and bad, would in four years come out of the struggle, el- 
evated to the highest standard of humanity and civilization. To the Sena- 
tor, who, whether he foresaw all this or not, never faltered in his high aim of 
keeping the people and the government up to the grand issue of the hour, and 
in his endeavor to establish a policy commensurate with brilliant opportunity 
which the most complete victory would bring, I think the gratitude of all 
lovers of freedom throughout the world is due. 

Whether we call South Carolina, and Georgia, and Alabama, and Mississip- 
pi, and Virginia, and those other " wayward sisters," terri ories or not, one 
thing is certain, and that is that they now rest in the hands of the general 
government, and it is for Congress to declare when and how they shall resume 
their places in the Union. Virginia, under act of Congress, makes two very 
good States : 1 am not sure that North and South Carolina could not be join- 
ed into one, with equal advantage. It is by Congress that the work of recon- 
struction is to be carried on, a work of more importance than any which has 
yet been imposed upon it. It is for them to perfect the great work begun upon 
the battle-field, and to secure to the American people the reward for all their 
devotion and sacrifice. Representatives of free and loyal States, it is for them 
alone to carry freedom and loyalty, into those places made waste by the deso- 
lation which has followed in the wake of slavery and treason. This duty they 
cannot delegate to others. To leave it to the. hunted and fugitive loyalists of 
the South, is to mock their feebleness and insignificance. To leave it to re- 
pentant rebels, is to resign the opportunity forever. In whatever way this 
duty is to be performed, whether by the appointment of military governors, or 



12 



/& 



by officers elected by a few loyal voters, whether by civil organizations called 
States or territories, it all comes back upon Congress, whose acts of reconstruc- 
tion, confirmed by the Supreme Court, can alone give us our entire country 
once more. 

In all this I see no danger, but safety and honor to our nation rather. We 
have a Congress now elected for the purpose of extending free institutions and 
perpetuating them ; a Congress representing the highest purposes of a high- 
toned, elevated, moral, and free people, a Congress which, if true to all its ob- 
ligations, must wipe every vestige of slavery from the land, and carry free 
northern prosperity, and education, and suffrage, into that region which set 
at defiance every advancing thought of the age. And it cannot be that with 
the lesson of the last four years in their minds, the American people will ever 
absolve their representatives from* these high obligations, until the work is 
fully accomplished. We have a Supreme Court now, whose distinguished 
Chief has shown, in another sphere, how well he comprehended the necessities 
of the times, and whose whole life gives us an assurance that constitutional 
law will now rest upon the foundations of freedom and justice, and will be in- 
terpreted in accordance with those principles of government, which we have 
Becured by undying devotion to the Federal authority. We have a President 
now, who knows the heresies and the wrongs, out of which the rebellion sprang, • 
and whose education and instincts would guide him in our new path of na- 
tional trials, to an eminence as illustrious as that won by his predecessor 
while he opened the way to higher national glories. 

I am apt to believe that our nation has entered upon a new career of great- 
ness, a career which will be untrammeled by the difficulties and trials of the 
past, whatever may be its dangers and trials in the future. I think the States 
have learned at last what their proper place is under the government. I think 
they have learned that the constitution and the laws enacted under it are the 
supreme law of the land ; and that in learning this lesson they have lost none 
of those functions by which they have always controlled their own internal 
economy, for the peace, good order, and elevation of their people. I trust 
they have learned also that free-citizenship for all races of men is to be here- 
after the unalterable law of the American people, and that every revolted State 
shall be held in territorial subserviency to the General Government, until she 
is ready to adopt this policy as her own. 

Respectfully yours, etc., 

GEORGE B. LORING. 



